Myriam Benisty new director at the MPIA
Myriam Benisty is now officially new Director at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, and succeeds Thomas Henning, who will remain at the institute on the Königstuhl as Director Emeritus. On September 1st, Ms. Benisty will be moving from the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble (IPAG) and Observatory of the Côte d’Azur (OCA) to Heidelberg.
Over the past 25 years, the international success of MPIA was initially characterized by two large scientific departments under the leadership of Thomas Henning (Planet- and Star Formation (PSF)) and Hans-Walter Rix (Galaxies and Cosmology (GC)). In 2020, Laura Kreidberg joined as a new third director and with her also a new department (Atmospheric Physics of Planets (APEx)). The institute is also a major international player in the development, construction and use of high-tech measuring instruments for the largest telescopes on Earth and in space.
Myriam Benisty will take over the PSF department from Thomas Henning, who will continue to lead a scientific emeritus group. This means that there will be continuity in the MPIA research focus and departmental structure.
During her scientific career, Myriam Benisty has worked at various renowned institutes. She first studied physics at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and then completed her doctorate in astrophysics at the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble (IPAG). Myriam Benisty then worked as a postdoctoral researcher not only at the Arcetri Observatory in Florence (Italy), but also at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA). She is therefore already familiar with the Institute in Heidelberg.
After obtaining a staff position at the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble, she worked at the CNRS institute in the Department of Astronomy of the University of Chile in Santiago, and at the Observatory of the Côte d’Azur. In January 2022, Myriam Benisty also started an ERC-funded project called PROTOPLANETS.
Following this successful career path and her rise to become one of the leading experts in the field of planet-formation, she will now move permanently to the MPIA in Heidelberg in the Fall.
KJ/MB